International Law

New features

Posted on December 19, 2007
I have made some changes to the sidebar. Next to some new icons, it now includes:a module with the latest news on the European Court of Justice (via google news)a module with the latest press releases from the Court (just those on the cases) a module with a newsletter subscription service...

Case C?532/03, Commission v Ireland

Posted on December 18, 2007
Commission cannot start Article 226 EC action on the basis of a mere presumptionThe Commission claimed the arrangements under which emergency ambulance services were provided by the Dublin City Council by agreement with the Eastern Regional Health Authority without there having been any prior advertising constituted a breach of Articles 43 EC and 49 EC and of the general principles of Community law (notably those of transparency and equality or non-discrimination)...

Case C-77/05, United Kingdom v Council

Posted on December 18, 2007
Court applies legal basis case established in Titanium Dioxide to Schengen acquis.In this case, the United Kingdom claimed that the Court should annul Council Regulation 2007/2004 of 26 October 2004, which established the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union (the Border Agency Regulation)...

Lisbon Treaty and other news

Posted on December 13, 2007
Lisbon TreatyEurope's leaders this morning signed the Lisbon Treaty, as it is now called. Except for Prime Minister Brown, who was delayed and apparently attended a special "one-nation ceremony" at 2pm to put his name under the Treaty as well. The final text is available here...

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Joined Cases T 3/00 AND T 337/04, Pitsiorlas v Council and ECB

Posted on December 13, 2007
Community not liable for PhD candidate not finishing his thesis in timeThis was a lengthy case. In short, the Court held that the refusal of the ECB to grant a Greek Phd candidate access to (documents concerning the) Basle/Nyborg Agreement infringed the duty to state reasons...

C-393/05, Commission v. Austria

Posted on December 13, 2007
This judgment is largely similar to that in C-404/05, Commission v. Germany, also delivered November 29, 2007. These cases had a shared Opinion of Advocate General Sharpston.Case C-393/05 concerned an Austrian requirement that every private inspection body in the field of organic production of agricultural products having a registered office in and approved in another Member State that it must also maintain a registered office or place of business in Austria in order to be allowed to carry out business activities in Austria (the German case involved a similar requirement)...

C-319/05, Commission v Germany

Posted on December 13, 2007
By classifying as a medicinal product a garlic preparation in capsule form, Germany infringed Art. 28 and Art. 30 EC. The capsule from did not satisfy the definition of a medicinal product within the meaning of Art. 1(2) of Directive 2001/83.The Commission sought a declaration from the Court that, by classifying a garlic preparation in capsule form, which did not fall under the definition of a medicinal product by virtue of its designation, as a medicinal product, Germany had failed to fulfil its obligations under Articles 28 and 30 EC...

T-194/04, Bavarian Lager v Commission

Posted on December 13, 2007
CFI annuls decision of Commission not to grant access to the minutes of a meeting between representatives of the Commission, the UK government and breweries.Following an legislative amendment in the United Kingdom, breweries were required to allow public houses bound to them by exclusive purchasing agreements to offer a "guest" beer from a different brewery...

C-379/05, Amurta v Inspecteur van de Belastingdienst

Posted on December 13, 2007
Certain provisions of Dutch law on taxation of dividends infringing Art. 56 ECDutch legislation on the taxation of dividends (Wet DB) provided for a withholding tax on dividends distributed by a company established in that Member State to a company established in another Member State, where the minimum threshold for the parent company?s shareholdings in the share capital of the subsidiary set out in Art...

C-221/06, Frohnleiten

Posted on November 15, 2007
An Austrian tax provision made the deposit of waste at a waste disposal site subject to a disused hazardous site levy. However, it provided for exemption from that tax for the deposit of waste which demonstrably derived from the safeguarding or rehabilitation of contaminated sites, if these sites were entered in official registers...

Case 440/05, Commission v Council

Posted on November 15, 2007
The Commission sought annulment of Framework Decision 2005/667. Based on Title VI of the Treaty on European Union, in particular on Articles 31(e) EU and 34(2)(b) EU, the Framework Decision constituted the instrument by which the European Union intended to approximate criminal-law legislation of the Member States by requiring them to provide for criminal penalties in order to combat ship-source pollution caused with intent or by serious negligence...

Case C-273/04, Poland v Council

Posted on November 13, 2007
Poland argued that Article 1(5) of Decision 2004/281 could not be based on Article 23 of the Act of Accession. Poland contended that the measures amounted to a fundamental alteration of the conditions of accession defined in that Act that was detrimental to the Poland...

C-112/05, Volkswagen

Posted on November 13, 2007
I wrote about this case before. The case involved a 1960 German Law on the privatisation of equity in the Volkswagenwerk limited company, according to which the limited liability company, Volkswagenwerk, was to be converted into a public limited company (?Volkswagen?)...

Joined Cases T 125/03 and T 253/03, Akzo and Akcros

Posted on November 13, 2007
In 2003, Commission officials carried out an investigation at the applicants? premises. Commission officials took copies of a considerable number of documents, but the applicants? representatives informed the Commission officials that certain documents were likely to be covered by the protection of confidentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients (?legal professional privilege? or ?LPP?)...

C-411/05, Palacios de la Villa

Posted on October 16, 2007
In this case, Mr Palacios claimed that his dismissal on the ground that he had attained the compulsory retirement age laid down in a collective agreement was unlawful.Mr Palacios, born on 3 February 1940, was an organisational manager who worked for the undertaking Cortefiel Servicios SA since 17 August 1981...

New Draft of the Reform Treaty

Posted on October 12, 2007
Here is the link to the drafts of the texts which emerged from the proceedings of the Working Party of the Legal Experts.They will be discussed in the ?margins? of the GAERC on October 15-16 (see this agenda (in pdf)) and, as is well known, at the Lisbon Informal Summit October 18-19 (see this link).

C?443/06, Hollmann v Ministério Público

Posted on October 12, 2007
Mrs Hollmann had resided in Germany since the time of the facts in the case in the main proceedings.Following the death of her husband, in 1998 Mrs Hollmann inherited immovable property situated in Portugal. She was taxed on the basis of tax on inheritance and donations on the value of that asset...

C-117/06, Möllendorf and Others

Posted on October 12, 2007
In this case, the referring Court asked for an interpretation of Council Regulation 881/2002, which imposed certain specific restrictive measures directed against certain persons and entities associated with Usama bin Laden, the Al?Qaida network and the Taliban...

Interview Jaeger

Posted on October 11, 2007
Just came accross this interesting Bloomberg interview with the new President of the CFI, who states that tackling the backlog of cases is his top priority. He also talks about the changes he made to the composition of the CFI: the tribunal's 27 judges will be spread among eight chambers, instead of five...

New Court documents

Posted on October 11, 2007
The Court of Justice has issued this Code of Conduct for its Members (opens in pdf), which does not really entail anything new but still is worth reading. The Civil Service Tribunal, furthermore, has issued these instructions to the registrar (opens in pdf).

Jaeger new president CFI

Posted on September 18, 2007
Marc Jaeger of Luxembourg has been elected as new president of the CFI. See this press release (pdf). Mr Jaeger was born in 1954; lawyer; attaché de justice, was delegated to the Public Attorney's Office; Judge, Vice-President of the Luxembourg District Court; teacher at the Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg (Luxembourg University Centre); member of the judiciary on secondment, and Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice from 1986...

T-201/04, Microsoft v Commission

Posted on September 18, 2007
As I have written on this case before: in sum, this case was about Microsoft?s refusal to supply interoperability information and its bundling of Windows Media Player with the Windows client PC operating system.Limited ReviewThe Court reiterated that it could only undertake a limited review, since this case involved a complex economic appraisal...

Microsoft loses antitrust case

Posted on September 17, 2007
The CFI has delivered its Microsoft judgment. It finds that Microsoft has abused its dominant position. Analysis following soon.Press release (pdf)Link to judgment

Microsoft Ruling next Monday

Posted on September 11, 2007
Next week, the Court of First Instance will deliver what is probably one of its most important judgments ever. As ?predicted?, the Court will next Monday rule on the validity of the ?497 million fine imposed by the Commission on Microsoft for its bundling of the Windows operating system with its Media Player...

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